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New Manuscripts Finding Aids: Fall 2021

New Manuscripts Finding Aids: Fall 2021

The William L. Clements Library's new batch of finding aids pertains to a variety of 19th century topics. The collections document variolation and childbirth, primary to higher education, Mississippi plantation life, teenage girls' experiences, textile mill work, beekeeping, Civil War life on the home front, a surgeon's experiences in the field, and more. We would like to express our special thanks to the late Paul Duane Haynes for donating letters of his father Irl Potter Haynes, which...

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A nesting doll of copies: a digital facsimile of an engraved facsimile of a medieval manuscript copy of a Roman map

A nesting doll of copies: a digital facsimile of an engraved facsimile of a medieval manuscript copy of a Roman map

This image comprises all the engraved segments of a half-size facsimile copy of a medieval manuscript map known as The Peutinger Map. The engraved facsimile is found in later editions of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, edited and published by Abraham Ortelius (and often noted as the "first" modern atlas). The Clements Library’s copy is in the 1624 Theatrum (Atl 1624 Or).All engraved segments of the Ortelius Peutinger map, digitally stitched togetherDetail showing the first segmentAbrahami Ortelii...

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“Adopt a Piece of History” Fest on September 9 at 7:00 pm

“Adopt a Piece of History” Fest on September 9 at 7:00 pm

Launched online in May 2020, “Adopt a Piece of History” is both a way for the public to learn more about the Clements Library as well as a vivid demonstration of the impacts of donor support. “Adopting” materials at the Clements—giving towards the costs of acquisition, conservation, and digitization—directly supports the work while also recognizing the donor through a virtual bookplate.Before the program was on the website, it was conducted through events where selected items from the...

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Transcription Project Mid-Year Update

Transcription Project Mid-Year Update

As part of the Clements Library's digitization program, we have started to make selected archival collections available online. To make these materials fully available for research, we welcome volunteers to help us create searchable full-text transcriptions for each page. Learn more and join the project.Currently Available for Transcription German Auxiliaries Muster RollsDocuments relating to Hessian soldiers in the American Revolution. Great Britain Indian Department CollectionMaterials...

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New Manuscripts Finding Aids: Summer 2021

New Manuscripts Finding Aids: Summer 2021

The Clements Library is pleased to announce that the following collections are now described online and may be requested for use in the reading room. (The Clements Library is currently open by appointment only for U-M faculty, students and staff and Clements research fellows.) Before planning your research visit, please verify in advance if our normal open hours for researchers have resumed. For all researchers, we are happy to schedule a video consultation instead of a visit to the library....

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Book Review: “Frontier Metropolis: Picturing Early Detroit, 1701-1838”

Book Review: “Frontier Metropolis: Picturing Early Detroit, 1701-1838”

Guest author Jonathan Quint, a PhD candidate in the University of Michigan Department of History and 2020-2021 Clements Library Intern, reflects on one of the Clements' most celebrated publications 20 years after its release. ***Brian Leigh Dunnigan. Frontier Metropolis: Picturing Early Detroit, 1701-1838. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001. Pg 247. Appendices. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Maps. Notes. Cloth. Brian Dunnigan’s Frontier Metropolis: Picturing Early Detroit,...

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Pirates and Indigenous of the Pacific: Reading Between the Coastlines of the Hacke Atlas

Pirates and Indigenous of the Pacific: Reading Between the Coastlines of the Hacke Atlas

Guest post by Danny Zborover; 2020-2021 Mary G. Stange Fellow at the Clements Library; dazborov@gmail.com *** As the pirates disembarked their ship and prepared to attack, another group of black-attired characters formed a solid line behind the defensive wall. After a short but fierce melee, the makeshift fortification collapsed and the pirates rushed, swords in hand, to seize the town’s church. With the band playing and the crowd cheering, the pirates then broke into a solemn dance in front...

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Announcing digitized archival collections documenting the slave trade, Caribbean enslavement, and anti-slavery activities in Michigan

Announcing digitized archival collections documenting the slave trade, Caribbean enslavement, and anti-slavery activities in Michigan

The William L. Clements Library has recently made available online three archival collections pertinent to the trade of enslaved persons, slavery in Jamaica, and antislavery activities in Michigan. They include the Thomas Leyland Company Account Books, 1789-1793; Jacob Aemilius Irving Letterbooks, 1809-1816; and Harriet DeGarmo Fuller Papers, 1852-1857. These collections are made up of bound volumes, which see regular use in the reading room and classes. The digital surrogates have significant...

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The Grosvenor L. Townsend Scrapbooks: First-hand insights from the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars

The Grosvenor L. Townsend Scrapbooks: First-hand insights from the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars

At the beginning of March 2021, a grand total of 59 new finding aids for Graphics Division collections were made available online. While the vast majority of these finding aids were produced for collections that already had pre-existing catalog records, six of them were completely new additions for previously un-cataloged materials. Among these six collections with brand new finding aids, the Grosvenor L. Townsend Scrapbooks are particularly noteworthy specimens. Consisting of seven scrapbook...

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Clements Library announces 2021 Fellowship Awards

Clements Library announces 2021 Fellowship Awards

The Clements Library is delighted to announce its list of research fellowship awardees for 2021-22. Because of the backlog in research visits from last year’s fellowship cohort due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we pushed our application deadline back this year, from January 15 to March 1. Even so, we received close to 100 applications, our highest number ever. From this extraordinarily strong pool, we were able to award 23 fellowships to scholars from 14 states and the District of Columbia, as...

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